SENIOR MANAGER, DFS IT OPERATIONS

Job Summary
The Senior Manager, DFS IT Operations is responsible for ensuring the stability, availability, and security of the
DFS Core Platform and all its integrations at the subsidiary level. Operating within group-wide standards and
frameworks, this role leads operational excellence at both strategic and tactical levels, driving high-velocity incident
detection and recovery while maintaining system stability in a high-change environment.
The Senior Manager will implement and embed the group Center of Excellence operational standards locally,
ensuring any subsidiary-specific optimizations required by local regulations or operational requirements are properly
documented and socialized both within the subsidiary and at group level.
Working closely with local support teams, including networks, data center, and core banking, this role ensures end
to-end service management through automated, code-driven operations and a collaborative approach to delivery.
The key driver for the Senior Manager, DFS IT Operations will be to maintain world-class platform availability and
performance at the subsidiary level, fostering a culture of operational readiness and coaching a team of assistant
managers and engineers across core platform and middleware integration functions to deliver exceptional service to
the business and its customers.
Key Responsibilities and Accountability
Operational Excellence & Incident Management
• Execute the 1-5-10 operational mandate for the Integrations Platform, ensuring rapid detection, investigation, and
resolution of incidents affecting middleware, APIs, and partner integrations
• Lead day-to-day incident response for all integration-related issues, coordinating with partners, internal teams,
and the Core Platform team to restore service.
• Serve as the primary technical escalation point for the NOC on integration and partner-related incidents.
• Conduct thorough root cause analysis for integration failures, partner connectivity issues, and middleware
incidents, implementing preventive measures.
• Maintain 24/7 operational coverage through effective shift scheduling, ensuring coordination with Core Platform
operations.
Integration Service Management.
• Own end-to-end service availability and performance for all platform integrations, including airtime purchase,
bank integrations, payment partners, and other regional services.
• Establish and monitor Service Level Agreements with integration partners across the region.
• Proactively monitor integration health, partner connectivity, transaction success rates, and performance metrics.
• Track and report on partner performance, escalating chronic issues and driving resolution of recurring problems.
Partner Relationship & Escalation Management
• Build and maintain strong technical relationships with integration partner organizations and their technical
leadership. Establish clear escalation matrices with all integration partners, ensuring efficient issue resolution
pathways.
• Coordinate technical reviews with partners to address service quality issues, optimize integration performance,
and drive continuous improvement.
• Manage partner escalations effectively, ensuring timely resolution and appropriate communication to
stakeholders.
• Maintain comprehensive tracking of partner issues, resolution timelines, and outstanding actions.
Change & Release Management.
• Review and provide technical input on all changes affecting integrations, middleware, and partner connectivity.
• Collaborate closely with the Core Platform Manager to evaluate cross-platform dependencies and potential
integration impacts.
• Coordinate with integration partners on their planned changes, ensuring proper testing and controlled production
deployment.
• Prepare detailed change implementation and rollback plans for integration-related changes.
• Submit all changes to the Senior Manager for approval, providing comprehensive risk assessments and partner
coordination details.
Operational Readiness & Integration Onboarding
• Partner with delivery teams during onboarding of new integration partners and services, ensuring operational
readiness before go-live.
• Define and validate operational acceptance criteria for new integrations, including monitoring, alerting, support
procedures, and partner escalation paths.
• Ensure comprehensive knowledge transfer from delivery teams and integration partners to the operations team.
• Establish appropriate support arrangements, monitoring frameworks, and escalation processes for each new
integration.
Middleware & Integration Platform Management.
• Maintain the health, performance, and availability of the integration middleware platform supporting regional
services.
• Implement comprehensive monitoring and alerting for middleware components, integration flows, and partner
endpoints
• Coordinate with infrastructure and platform teams to address middleware infrastructure dependencies.
• Ensure proper capacity planning for the integration platform to support transaction growth and new partner
onboarding.
Automation & Continuous Improvement
• Drive automation of integration monitoring, health checks, and common remediation tasks.
• Develop automated alerting and diagnostic tools that accelerate incident detection and resolution.
• Identify patterns in integration failures and implement systematic improvements to reduce recurring issues.
• Contribute to the Technical Operations Center of Excellence by standardizing integration operational practices
across subsidiaries.
Team Leadership & Development
• Lead, mentor, and develop a team comprising a Senior Officer and multiple support engineers.
• Conduct regular performance reviews, provide coaching and feedback, and create clear development paths for
team members.
• Build team expertise in integration technologies, partner systems, and troubleshooting methodologies.
• Foster collaborative relationships with the Core Platform team, ensuring seamless cross-team coordination.
• Facilitate blameless post-mortems and knowledge-sharing sessions that drive team learning and capability
building.
Compliance & Asset Management.
• Maintain accurate inventory of all integration platform assets, partner connection details, API versions, and
certificates.
• Coordinate timely renewal of integration-related certificates, API credentials, and access tokens.
• Ensure integration operations comply with security standards, data residency requirements, and regulatory
expectations.
• Support Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery testing for integration services, implementing identified
improvements
CORE ACCOUNTABILITIES AND DELIVERABLES
1. Platform Availability, Operational Excellence and the 1-5-10 Mandate
Accountable for DFS Core Platform and middleware integration availability, performance and security at the
subsidiary level, meeting agreed SLA targets and achieving the group-wide 1-5-10 operational mandate. Deliver
monthly platform performance reports covering incident metrics, detection, investigation, and resolution times for
local leadership review with group participation, with adopted reports presented to Group IT and Business
Leadership. Deliver an operational excellence roadmap with SRE transformation milestones and regular briefings
consolidating technical risks, opportunities, and recommendations for local and group stakeholders.
2. OPEX Budget and Local Cost Optimization\:
Accountable for developing, managing, and optimizing the subsidiary IT Operations OPEX budget, ensuring
fiscal discipline and value delivery within the locally set budget parameters. Deliver annual budget plans with
strategic justifications, monthly financial reports with variance explanations, and cost optimization initiatives
demonstrating year-over-year efficiency improvements. Liaise with the group on vendor and partner performance
where local operational impact is identified, providing local context and data to support group-level vendor
management decisions as well as provide input to vendor performance review discussions.
3. Operational Readiness, Change Management and Cross-Functional Collaboration
Accountable for operational readiness at the subsidiary level and for the local change management process, including
aligning local teams on deployments and activities required ahead of changes. Own the escalation of changes through
the group technology review process, confirming readiness for group CAB, presenting changes for approval, and
coordinating scheduling. Deliver operational readiness certifications for local deployments, coordinated deployment
plans, high-risk change assessments, monthly change performance reports with failed change root cause analyses, and
stakeholder communications for planned service disruptions.
4. CoE Standards Adoption, Local Optimisation and Compliance
Accountable for the local implementation and adoption of group Technical Operations Center of Excellence standards
and operational practices. Identify, document and socialise any subsidiary-specific optimisations required by local
regulations or operational context, ensuring these are formally aligned with group before adoption. Deliver local CoE
adoption assessments, standardised operational procedures and runbooks aligned to group standards, compliance
status reports, audit remediation plans with closure tracking, and BC/DR testing results with improvement actions
escalated to group where relevant.
5. People Leadership, Culture, Continuous Improvement and Innovation
Accountable for the performance, development and organisational effectiveness of the subsidiary Technical
Operations team, setting the cultural tone and driving continuous improvement and automation within the local team.
Deliver quarterly, half-yearly and annual performance reviews for direct reports, succession plans, talent development
strategies, quarterly team performance assessments, capability gap analyses with training plans, automation roadmaps
with implementation milestones and efficiency metrics demonstrating toil reduction and KPI improvements e.g.,
MTTR, MTBF.
KEY DECISIONS MADE BY THE JOB-HOLDER (NOT RECOMMENDATIONS) AND HOW OFTEN
1. Change Approvals and Production Deployment Authorization (Daily/Weekly).
• Final approval or rejection of changes affecting systems within the subsidiary DFS domain, particularly
high-risk or complex changes, prior to escalation through the group CAB process.
• Authorization for local production deployments that meet or fail operational readiness standards.
• Decision to halt or proceed with deployments when operational concerns arise at the subsidiary level.
• Timing and sequencing of local changes in coordination with local and group teams to prevent conflicts,
ahead of group CAB scheduling, and to ensure vendor support is available where needed
2. Organizational Structure and Resource Allocation (Quarterly/As Needed).
• Local team structure adjustments, role definitions, and span of control decisions as the subsidiary function
evolves.
• Resource allocation decisions between core platform and middleware integration functions based on local
business priorities.
• Hiring approvals and succession planning decisions for assistant manager and engineer positions within the
subsidiary team.
• Performance ratings and corrective actions for direct reports and escalated team issues
3. Major Incident Escalation and Crisis Response (As Incidents Occur).
• When to personally engage in major incident response versus delegating to assistant managers.
• Decision to escalate incidents to local IT leadership, Business leadership, group IT Operations, or external
stakeholders
• Authorization for emergency changes or workarounds that deviate from standard processes during critical
incidents, with immediate notification to the group.
• Communication strategy and messaging for high-impact incidents affecting local business operations or
customers
4. Local Operational Standards and Compliance Decisions (Quarterly/As Needed).
• Adoption and local implementation of group 1-5-10 mandate strategies and SRE transformation priorities
within the subsidiary.
• Local operational readiness standards and acceptance criteria, implemented within the group framework and
documented where subsidiary-specific optimizations are required.
• Local CoE adoption priorities and sequencing, with any deviations from group standards formally documented
and socialized with group IT Operations.
• Decisions on local compliance responses where subsidiary-specific regulatory requirements differ from group
standards, with formal documentation and group alignment required before adoption